This Path
by Tigeress419
Summary: Between our lies and our truths, is the path we choose." Spike learns this when a mysterious man grants his wish that he was never brought back from the dead. Please read and review, it'll mean a lot!
1. Prologue

A/N: This fic takes place right after "You're Welcome", however it won't talk much about Cordelia's death, since no one but Angel knows, at least at this time. It was inspired by one of Spike's line before they go out for drinks.

Disclaimer: I don't own Angel or any of its characters, it's that simple.

****

This Path

By Tigeress419

_Between our lies and our truths _

Is the path that we choose -- My Grandmother 

His friends, or at least his company, had left a long time ago. Their laughter had gradually become more unease sincere there was obviously someone missing.

"I'll try Angel on his cell, just to see where he and Cordy are," a brunette who went by the name of Fred said some hours earlier. 

There was no response. Many of them decided to head home, while a British man named Wesley agreed to stop by Wolfram & Hart to see why Angel and Cordelia never showed.

He, however stayed, and was now starting on yet another drink. He ran his fingers through his platinum blonde hair as he stared at his own reflection in the liquid. He was obviously deep in thought.

I sat on the stool next to him, other than a few men to drunk to go anywhere in the corner, we had the place to ourselves.

"Why such the long face?" I asked.

Being somewhat intoxicated, his guard was down, "You would too if you had been duped by some cowboy pounce in to thinking that you had a destiny."

The bartender gave a strange look at him as he walked away to the other end of the bar, but that was to be expected.

"You don't think you have a destiny?"

"What he said made sense of why I was back, but now I know he was just lying, that bloody bastard. I haven't got a clue why I was brought back. I don't really see the point anymore," he took a long sip from his glass.

"So you wish that you never came back?"

"Yeah, it better to be dead than not to have a purpose," he slurred.

"You know how they say be careful for what you wish for?"

"Yeah, what about it?" he gave me a suspicious glance.

"Well, whoever 'they' are don't know what they are talking about,"

He nodded, too drunk to speak, and passed out there on the counter.

Let it begin, I thought to myself.


	2. Brave New World

Disclaimer: I don't own Angel, it's that simple.

A/N: Only the prologue was in first person, the rest will be in third.

Spike woke up, unsure of his surroundings. He groaned as he realized that he was still in the bar. He unnecessarily looked at his watch, he knew sunrise was coming, but how soon. The hands read 7:21 AM. 

"Damn," he muttered to himself. There was no way he could get to his apartment from here before dawn. It looked like he was going to be stuck at Wolfram & Hart for the day. Exactly what he wanted.

He walked out in the cool early morning air. It took long to get there than he expected, he didn't exactly know his way around this part of town. He was coming dangerously close to bursting into flames, but he kept his cool.

He sauntered into the main lobby, as people began filing in for work. He noticed the date on one of the lawyers LA Times…2009. He snickered, some poor sucker at the printing house was going to be strangled when the head editor, or someone, found out about that typo.

In entered Harmony, dressed in a black suit, looking well, professional. He always thought the whole uniform thing was sexy.

"What happened to pinks and yellows, love?" He asked, placing his on her desk. However she ignored him, going on to talk on the intercom.

"Boss," she said as usual but not in her trademark perky tone, "you have a meeting in five minutes with the head staff."

"Thank you," Angel replied, not saying anything to acknowledged her, no 'Harmony' or 'Harm'. What was with everyone today?

She began to type on her computer. Spike looked around her desk, it was so bare and minimal.

"What happened to all the picture frames and unicorns, Harm?" he asked but was given no response.

"Are you pissed off at me? Harmony, we've been over this-" he began but stopped at the sight of Fred. Her hair was pulled back into a severe bun and was dressed much like Harmony. She had collided with some young and frighten attorney, his papers now all over the floor. 

"What were you're going, and remember that you are nothing but a worthless little insect," she stated in a stern, but not raised, voice.

Shocked washed upon his face, what was going on?

"Fred, what the hell was that about?" he shouted but she too neglected to give him an answer. The head of the science department opened the door to Angel's office, and Spike followed. The rest of them were already there, except for Cordelia but Spike figured that was because she was a department head. He was expecting Angel to tell him to get out, but this grandsire didn't. 

"You're late," the CEO of Wolfram & Hart greeted.

Fred didn't say sorry or give an explanation or excuse, like Spike imagined she would. She simply sat down at the table that Spike didn't remember being there.

"So, the first order of business what are we doing at the excess amount of slayers now in LA?" Angel asked. Since when was there a slayer problem, sure there was Dana, but she was only one. Besides she was with Andrew now.

"Sent them somewhere else?" Gunn suggested.

"That won't solve the problem, there is too many of them, too many of them fighting for the evil. Evil corrupts in every city. I'm starting to realize why it was only one girl every generation," Wesley said.

"Fred, how many has your team estimated there are in LA,"

"Approximately 1,700 in Los Angeles County alone."

Spike jaw dropped. There were that many slayers in LA! Buffy and the rest of the group would have thought there were that many in the entire planet!

"How many have gone bad," Angel asked.

"About three-fifths are abusing their power, stealing from shops are whatnot. Then there is about five-sixths of that population working or are associated with darker powers."

"So how are we going to fix this."

"Terminate them all," Gunn suggested.

"What!" Spike yelled. He knew that they had been in the gray lately but this idea was pass that, more into the charcoal area.

"We don't have that kind of firepower,"

"Reverse the spell," Lorne said, while he was still wearing a turquoise suit it seemed to be duller than usual.

"We would need Willow for that," Wesley said softly.

Silence filled the room. 

"Any other ideas?" Angel threw his arms out, "Damn it. Everyone get to work."

Spike just gaped as he watched them get up. He felt a presence behind him and smelt a familiar scent.

"What happened to them? What did you do to them?" he spat.

"I could ask you the same, or rather what didn't you do to them," the mysterious man replied.

"What?"

"This is the world in which you stayed dead, and a five years in the future."

"How?"

"You wished for it,"

"No I didn't… you did,"

"Yeah, but you agreed with me."

The two of them stared at each other, and then Spike turned back to the others.

"I didn't know I had so-" the blonde vampire began.

"Of an affect?"

"What happened to her?" Spike asked looking into Fred's eyes, which had lost their sparkle.

"When things got bad -when she wasn't sure if they really had control- she had you to concentrate on. She knew she was doing some good by trying to make you corporeal. But here, she didn't have that. She slipped through the cracks."

"Does that go the same for the rest of them?" 

"Lindsey's plan left the drawing board without someone like you in it, so the Powers That Be never woke Cordelia up. She never got Angel back on the right track… and the others followed them. In the end, they never controlled this place, it began to control them."

"Why are you showing me this?"

"I don't know why…now that you mention it this isn't the most important thing you need to see,"

And with that the two of them disappeared to a new place. 


	3. It's Darkest Before

A/N: Thank you to all of you that have reviewed! I have a warm and fuzzy feeling now. This chapter voices a lot of strange questions I had at the end of Buffy, and brings in one of its characters 

Disclaimer: I don't own Angel, it's that simple.

Suddenly the two were on a cold dark street.

"Where are we? When are we?" Spike asked.

"I think Century City or somewhere in West LA and we only jumped a few hours."

"I don't know anyone here,"

"Remember, five years in the future," he commented as he followed behind a group of girls into an apartment complex. Spike did the say. The girls went up 2 flights of stairs and walked through the open air hallways to a door with the iron numbers '231'. Spike glanced over at the courtyard, it had a nice little garden complete with a fountain. This place was definitely for the upper middle class. 

Then he saw the state of the apartment, sleeping bags everywhere. At least fifteen people lived in this 2 bedroom pad. It reminded him of how the Summers' house was in the last few months before the destruction of the Hellmouth.

Suddenly a young brunette woman met the girls. Spike jaw dropped.it was Dawn. 

How could she be here- wasn't she in Rome, he thought to himself but then he remembered that this was five years into the future. Little Bit wasn't so little anymore. She was beautiful, tall and had developed this classy arua. Like Audrey Hepburn, leave it to Dawn to renew old-fashion elegance. 

"Where have you been?"

"Patorilling, what about you?" a woman with dirty blonde hair spat, she seemed to be the leader of the group.

"All of you, Kiara? Some of you should have at least checked in between school and," Dawn looked at her watch, "this early in the morning."

"Sorry, if it takes more of us to take down a group of vamps. We aren't as 'strong' as your snotty sister," another, younger, raven-haired girl replied.

"Meredith, you guys are still very powerful. And my sister isn't snotty,"

Kiara snorted, "Yeah right. She thinks she's better than us since she's the original."

"We've been over this, you all are just as important as Buffy or any of the other slayers," Dawn groaned.

"Yeah, yeah, will you let us go to bed now?"

"Go on,"

While Dawn was going over bills Spike and the wish granter spoke.

"How can there be this many slayers?" the vampire asked.

"While it's a long story,"

"It's not like I don't have time,"

He nodded, "Well when all the Potientals were made slayers that each got their own line of Potentials. But since Willow's spell called for all Potentials to be Slayer, the Potentials' potentials became slayers, and so on."

"So what stops all the girls in the world from being slayers?"

The dark-haired man gave him a look with his blue eyes.

Horror and shock washed upon Spike's face, "You mean they are all slayers."

"Technically, see there isn't that much mystical mojo to go around so each rank, I guess you can call them, is weaker than to one before. So by the time you get to the bottom the only difference is that those girls can open jars a little quicker. It's only the top few ranks that are supernaturally strong, but none will be as powerful as Buffy and her line." 

"That's interesting."

"Yeah, and they better pray for the Apocalypse to happen soon."

Spike looked at him as if he had two heads.

He explained, "You know how I said it there wasn't that much mystical slayer mojo, well because of the spell there isn't any left. That means once this generation dies off, no more slayers."

"Bloody hell, all of this because I didn't come back?"

"No everything was affected by you," he quickly realized what he said, "but a lot has!"

The door was swung open and a sandy blonde young man entered.

"Hey honey," 

"Hi Kaleb," Dawn said as they lean in for a very passionate kiss.

Little Bit has a boyfriend, he thought and then he saw a very big diamond on one of her fingers she was running through his hair.

"Bloody hell," was all that he could manage. A lot of things can happen in five years, like Dawn being engaged (he didn't see a golden band). 

"Where have you been?" she asked kindly.

"Looking for the slayers, didn't you get the message on your cell?"

"You know that thing, it never works," she laughed, holding his hand and gliding into one of the bedrooms. She sat down on the queen size bed.

"So how was your day?" he inquired as he undid his already loose tie.

"Bills, bills, and the slayers whining again. I swear I can't take much more of this."

He sat down next to her, "If anyone can take their shit day after day it's you. You're the strong woman I know.no pun intended. It's one of the reasons I fell in love with you."

She smiled," You know what?"

"What?"

"I think my day just got better,"

The two lovers began to kiss again, this time longer and more passionate. Kaleb began to slowly inch her shirt up. Sure she was older and in love, but at that moment Spike wanted to rip that guy's throat out.

"I don't need to see this-" he began but was cut off when Dawn let out a scream. Evidentially Kaleb had been nuzzling her neck, and let two fangs sink in. She quickly pushed him away, landing on the floor next to the bed

"Ka-Kaleb" her voice cracked as she looked at his new face.

"What is honey?"

"You're dead," tears began to run down her cheeks.

"Do cry, baby. We can be together forever," he slit his hand with one of his fangs.

"You're not Kaleb," she said forcefully as she stood up.

"No I'm better, and you will be too-" he walked towards her but was cut off by a stake being driven through his heart. His dust fell onto her.

There was Kiara standing there, "That really sucks. You know I thought he would be okay after we shoved him into that vamp nest," she smirked evilly, "Guess not."

"You did this," she screamed and pushed the slayer, filled with rage. However as she did this, Kiara stab her with the stake in the gut. Gasping for air, she was still standing, allowing Kiara to whisper in her ear.

"You know the last thing he did before died was say your name. Maybe you should return the favor."

With that the slayer shoved Dawn through the window, falling for one story. Spike followed her through the broken glass. He found her lying in the alley below. She coughed blood onto the cold, black pavement with tears steaming down her face. She let Kaleb's dust run through her fingers.

"Dawn, Dawn!" Spike yelled but it was to no use. She died there, alone, cold and in so much pain. It was so dark, and Spike cried there. Footsteps came down the back street.

"Oh God, we're too late, " he heard a familiar voice say.

He turned to see Fred with her hand over her mouth with the others.

"Dawn," Angel said, coming towards the body. He lowered her eyelids.

He went on, "I tried to warn but she didn't listen, she didn't trust me."

"We can't stay here, the Slayer Rebellion has begun. We have to stop them before they kill more," Wesley said unable to tear his eyes from the corpse. 

Angel nodded and looked over to Fred who knew what he meant, "I'll call a team to bring in her body, and then we'll call her family."

They walked away, Angel or Wesley occasionally looking back but soon they were gone, leaving Spike and the body.

"How could I have saved her?" he asked, knowing that the man was standing behind him.

"You couldn't have."

"I would have come with the others.too late."

"No, you would have made sure she was never put in this situation." 

"She would have listened if I had warn her of a rebellion."

"Yeah,"

Soon the rays of the sun came, shine on her dead face. 

A/N: This isn't the last chapter, so check for an update!


	4. Messenger

A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long to put up. School's been crazy. Shadid, sorry to confuse you but Spike death didn't affect the whole Slayer rebellion, some things will happen no matter if he came back or not. I think I had a line in there somewhere like that, but I guess you missed it. Well, I hope all of you like the chapter! Please, for the love of everything good in this world, review! I'll try to update sooner if you do!

Disclaimer: Read my lips- umm words, I don't own Angel.

"I get it now. Let me go back, let me change this." Spike said, the sun's rays not causing him to burst into flames, for he no longer existed.

"Do you really?"

"I'm important, and I can make a difference, blah, blah, blah. Let me go back now."

"You don't understand, do you?"

"How dense are you? I get it-"

"You understand that you've affect Angel and his group's future, but you haven't affected Dawn's. This is still going to happen back in your reality."

"Why? In that one I'm back from the dead."

"Yeah, but to her you're still dead. She doesn't know you're back. Consider this your wake-up call from the Powers That Be to make sure they, Dawn and the whole lot of them, know that you're back. Andrew's visit should made that clear to you."

"How do you know these things about me?"

"The Powers That Be caught me up, but that's a different and unimportant story. There's a little message in this big picture, and that is to ring them up."

"Okay, can I go back? I know that I have a purpose, that Doyle wasn't lying to me-"

"Excuse me?"

"And to tell the Scobbies that I'm back," Spike quickly interjected.

"No, no I mean about the man that lied to you-"

"Oh Doyle, well think his real name was Lindsey or something."

"Oh,"

"Can I go back now?" Spike asked, starting to get very irritated.

"Yes, I think the Powers will be pleased to have 'saved' the two vampire Champions in one night-"

"What?"

"That's another thing the Powers That Be are going start yelling at you about. You and Angel are so convinced that each of you is the vampire Champion, that it never came across that maybe that both of you are suppose to save the world."

"But which one of us gets to be a real boy in the end?"

The man shrugged, "I don't know. You want to keep asking questions or go home?"

"What do you think?"

"Alright," the man said in his Irish accent and put his fingers into a snapping position.

Spike breathed in as the man gave one last message.

"By the way," one of the man's blue eyes winked, "I'm the real Doyle."

And with that Spike awoke in the bar…again. He looked at the hands of his watch--it was 7:21 AM. He once again got lost, and made it into Wolfram & Hart just minutes before sunrise. He watched the busy lawyers, almost desperate to see one of them with a newspaper, so he could see if it was the right date. Then he saw Harmony, walk in dressed in black.

"Bloody hell, you don't need to repeat this day. I get it!" Spike muttered under his breath as he went over to Harm's desk, to see if she would be oblivious to him. 


	5. Epilogue

A/N: Thank for all of your review, please continue with them!

Disclaimer: I don't own Angel, it's that simple.

"I just can't believe she's gone," Harmony said staring at the floor.

Why was Harmony upset over Dawn, it wasn't like she really knew the girl, Spike thought to himself.

"Can you?" Harmony's eyes looked up into his, tears falling from them.

"What's wrong?" he asked uncertainly, since he now knew this was reality.

"What's wrong?" Harmony yelled angrily, "I may not have a soul like you and Boss but I do have feelings. I mean, she was my best friend since we were like in kindergarten."

The expression on Spike's face told her why his behavior was so strange.

"Oh, you don't know, do you?" she said nearly inaudibly.

"Know what?"

"The reason Angel and, and" Harmony stuttered, "Cordelia never showed up is-is…"

"What, love?"

"She died, she died," Harmony bawled, falling into his arms.

As he tried his best to comfort the distraught vampire as she told him the entire story, one of the things Doyle, the real one, echoed in his head.

_Yes, I think the Powers will be pleased to have 'saved' the two vampire Champions in one night _

Cordy had come back to save Angel, and Doyle had come back to help him. It was bit a cosmic joke really.

After a few minutes Harmony regained control of herself and settled in at her desk.

"I'm okay," she informed sitting down and wiping away her mascara that was running.

Spike nodded and began to walk away.

"Oh Spike," she called out.

"Yes,"

"Thanks, I was totally a mess back there. I didn't know what I do if you hadn't been there to listen,"

"I've been getting that a lot lately," he smiled a little and entered Angel's office.

"What is it?" the older vampire asked from the corner of the room, looking at the sunrise.

"I'm sorry to hear about Cordelia," Spike commented, knowing that her death would probably hit him the worse.

Angel's reply was silence.

"Could I have a Roman phone number?" Spike asked.

Angel knew what he meant by that, "Why?"

"I had a bit of a revelation last night,"

"It's probably in Harm's database of important phone numbers. Go check with her," Angel answered.

Silence once again filled the air. Spike wasn't sure if he should asked this question, but he wanted to make sure that what he saw wasn't some drunken dream.

"Cordelia, the other night, seemed pretty pissed about Lindsey using the name Doyle. Why, was the real Doyle better than that?"

"Do you remember him from when you tried to steal the Gem of Amara?"

"I just remember wanting to torture you and getting it,"

"He was the one who had the visions in the beginning, gave them to Cordelia before he died. He was our messenger from the Powers That Be, the first soldier down,"

"He didn't happen to be Irish, black hair, and blue eyes?"

"Yeah, you starting to remember," 

Not from then, Spike mentally replied. He turned to exit the office and barely missed a collision with a certain scientist.

"Sorry Fred," he said, glad to see her hair not pulled back in a bun, even though she was dressed in grays and blacks, mourning Cordelia he supposed.

"It's alright Spike," she replied quietly.

He walked back to Harmony's desk and received the phone, and then sneaked into an unused office. He estimated that it was roughly around sunset over in Italy. 

Isn't that ironic, he smirked looking at the dawn from the specially tinted windows.

After a few rings the phone was picked up. He could hear music being blasted in the background.

"Hello," a familiar voice said.

"How are things, Dawn"

**THE END**


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